Production-Distribution & Energy Systems

  The TechnoSphere

"We are living through an extraordinary moment in human history. Historians will look back on our times, the 40-year span between 1980 and 2020, and classify it among the handful of historical moments when humans reorganized their entire civilization around a new tool, a new idea. These decades mark the transition from the Industrial Age, an era organized around the motor, to the Digital Age, an era defined by the microprocessor -- the brains within today's personal computer. The mid-1990s, perhaps even 1995, may come to be viewed as the defining moment when society recognized the enormity of the changes taking place and began to reorient itself." --
 Peter Leyden, --" Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, 1995

A good starting point in our overview of the 'Enabling Technologies" behind the 3rd wave is Professor John McCann's website "CYBERTRENDS."  Constructed ~12 years ago ... he defines the emerging 3rd wave as the "Digital Dawn" and compiles the observations of dozens of  technologists, journalists, executives and other professionals who were noting what technologies were emerging/evolving and how these technologies were impacting on various aspects of society. McCann  organized his observations accordingly:

•  Technological  developments & trends are the primary change enablers...

• These technologies are leading to a digital dawn  (the 3rd wave) that is giving us the Internet and related products and services.

• This digital dawn is impacting the media, - (The info-Sphere)

• the way we live, - (The socio-sphere)

• and the way we work. -(The techno & socio-sphere)

• Finally, marketing is changing to accommodate these technology, media, and societal developments"

Caution: When reading pundit's & prognosticator's predictions regarding the impact of new technologies-- it might be wise to visit the "Historical Record of Inane Inaccuracies" -- to keep things in perspective.